How did we not know?
by ginnyrules27
Summary: Ron and the others are enjoying a nice July day when the six other Weasleys find out what Ron felt during his tenure at Hogwarts. How WILL THEY REACT? *Fred is Alive!* *ONE SHOT*


How did we not know?

A/N: I do not own Harry Potter

It had been five years after the war. The whole Weasley family was together and happier than they had ever been. Today happened to be Harry's twenty-second birthday. Bill and Charlie walked in on Harry and Ron laughing about something.

"Hey guys." Bill said. Before Charlie could say anything, the Twins and Percy came in.

"We heard laughter. Thought you guys might need help." Fred explained.

"I didn't want them blowing up the place." Percy said, a smile tugging at his lips.

"What's so funny?" Ginny asked, beating Charlie to his question. Harry's face seemed to light up at the site of his girlfriend.

"Oh, just remembering something from Hogwarts." Ron said vaguely. The Pensive also had several memories in there that he did not want his brothers and his sister to find out about. Despite his actions in the war, Ron still felt that shadow around him and really didn't want his family to know about it.

"Oh really?" Charlie asked. Ron was like him in a way: you could always tell when he was lying.

"What?" Bill asked.

"Malfoy: the amazing bouncing Ferret." Harry jumped in, saving his friend. He had caught Ron storing those memories in the Pensive and put in that memory just in case someone wondered about it.

"Oh, fond times." George said, while Ginny and Fred nodded.

"I'm confused." Percy said.

"Well, oh Head Boy—"

"Why don't you look in the Pensive?" Fred and George said. Ron began to fidget a bit. The ferret one happened to be the last one in there, so they'd have to listen to his insecurities for a while.

"Ron!" Hermione's voice called out.

"Be right there!" Ron called back. Turning to Harry, he said, "Duty calls." Leaving the room, he prayed that they would only see the ferret one.

"Now, then." Harry looked a bit uncomfortable. "Are you ready?"

Six "Yeah's" could be heard.

"Alright then. Into the Pensive we go!"

The first scene was the first time they met on the train and Harry inwardly groaned. They had to start out with that one.

_"__I heard you went to live with Muggles," said Ron. "What are they like?"_

"So this is the first time you and Ron met?" Bill asked.

Harry nodded.

"Cool." Bill always wanted to know how his brother and Harry Potter became friends.

_"__Horrible — well, not all of them. My aunt and uncle and cousin are, though. Wish I'd had three wizard brothers."_

"You do?" Five male voices could be heard.

"Don't forget the sister." Ginny growled.

"Never love." Harry kissed her, ignoring all the looks from the elder Weasleys.

_"__Five," said Ron. For some reason, he was looking gloomy._

"Why? I love talking about my family." Bill said, confused.

"Ditto." Charlie said.

_"__I'm the sixth in our family to go to Hogwarts.__You could say I've got a lot to live up to. Bill and Charlie have already left — Bill was head boy and Charlie was captain of Quidditch." _

"Hey, I'm remembered!" Charlie laughed.

"Shut it, you!"

_Now Percy's a prefect. Fred and George mess around a lot, but they still get really good marks and everyone thinks they're really funny. Everyone expects me to do as well as the others, but if I do, it's no big deal, because they did it first." _

Bill, Charlie and Percy were shocked. They had never noticed that their brother had felt that way. Fred and George were looking over at Harry, daring him to confirm this.

Harry sighed. "Wait for it."

_You never get anything new, either, with five brothers. I've got Bill's old robes, Charlie's old wand, and Percy's old rat."__Ron reached inside his jacket and pulled out a fat gray rat, which was asleep.__ "__His name's Scabbers and he's useless, he hardly ever wakes up. Percy got an owl from my dad for being made a prefect, but they couldn't aff — I mean, I got Scabbers instead."_

"I can't believe this." Percy said. "Ron was jealous of me?"

_Ron's ears went pink._

The scene changed to the third night where Harry had found the Mirror of Erised.

_"__Yes and no," said Dumbledore quietly. "It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts._

"Huh?" Fred asked.

"Shut it Fred. It's not my fault you're so thick." Ginny growled.

_You, who have never known your family, see them standing around you. Ronald Weasley, who has always been overshadowed by his brothers, sees himself standing alone, the best of all of them._

"What did he say?" Charlie asked.

"Overshadowed?" Percy echoed.

"Hey! Why is everyone forgetting me?" Ginny yelled.

"He does know—"

"That's rubbish, right?" the Twins asked.

The scene changed to the day after Harry' and Ron's fight in fourth year.

_"__Have you seen Ron?" Harry interrupted._

"Harry, he was here five minutes ago." Fred joked.

_Hermione hesitated._

"Why?" Bill asked. From what they saw, the trio seemed to be the best of mates.

_"__Erm… yes… he was at breakfast," she said._

_"__Does he still think I entered myself?"_

"WHAT!" Bill, Charlie and Percy yelled. Not having been there at that time, they were amazed that this had occurred.

_"__Well… no, I don't think so… not really," said Hermione awkwardly._

"Not really convincing."

_"__What's that supposed to mean, 'not really'?"_

_"__Oh Harry, isn't it obvious?" Hermione said despairingly. "He's jealous!"_

"Of Harry?" George asked. "Why would you be jealous of a scrawny git?"

"Oi!"

_"__Jealous?" Harry said incredulously. "Jealous of what? He wants to make a prat of himself in front of the whole school, does he?"_

"Didn't he do that anyway?" Ginny giggled.

_"__Look," said Hermione patiently, "it's always you who gets all the attention, you know it is."_

"Nice one Hermione." Harry still felt a bit of resentment at that line.

_I know it's not your fault," she added quickly, seeing Harry open his mouth furiously. "I know you don't ask for it… but - well - you know, Ron's got all those brothers to compete against at home, and you're his best friend, and you're really famous - he's always shunted to one side whenever people see you, and he puts up with it, and he never mentions it, but I suppose this is just one time too many…"_

The Weasley's were stunned. They never thought this feeling with Ron had gone that far. The next memory changed into the scene where Ron was going to stab the locket.

"Err? What's going on?" Percy asked.

"Just watch." Harry sighed. And to think, he'd just wanted to show them Malfoy getting turned into a ferret.

_"No!" said Ron. "Don't open it! I'm serious!"_

_"Why not?" asked Harry. "Let's get rid of the damn thing, it's been months -"_

"Oh, so this is what you three were doing that year!" Ginny gasped.

_"I can't, Harry, I'm serious - you do it -"_

_"But why?"_

_"Because that thing's bad for me!" said Ron, backing away from the locket on the rock. "I can't handle it! I'm not making excuses, for what I was like, but it affects me worse than it affects you and Hermione, it made me think stuff - stuff that I was thinking anyway, but it made everything worse. I can't explain it, and then I'd take it off and I'd get my head straight again, and then I'd have to put the effing thing back on - I can't do it Harry!"_

Bill wondered if that had been the reasons for the nightmares his little brother had had when he'd stayed at his house.

_He had backed away, the sword dragging at his side, shaking his head._

_"You can do it," said Harry, "you can! You've just got the sword, I know it's supposed to be you who uses it. Please just get rid of it Ron."_

"Nice pep talk." Fred grinned.

"Almost as good as Wood's." George continued.

"Get the Snitch or die trying!" the three of them chorused.

_The sound of his name seemed to act like a stimulant. Ron swallowed, then still breathing hard through his long nose, moved back toward the rock._

_"Tell me when," he croaked._

"Yay Ron!" the twins cheered.

_"On three," said Harry, looking back down at the locket and narrowing his eyes, concentrating on the letter S, imagining a serpent, while the contents of the locket rattled like a trapped cockroach. It would have been easy to pity it, except that the cut around Harry's neck still burned._

_"One . . . two . . . three . . .open."_

"I must admit that's rather creepy." Charlie muttered.

_The last word came as a hiss and a snarl and the golden doors of the locket swung wide open with a little click._

_Behind both of the glass windows within blinked a living eye, dark and handsome as Tom Riddle's eyes had been before he turned them scarlet and slit-pupiled_

_"Stab," said Harry, holding the locket steady on the rock._

"Come on Ron." Percy muttered.

_Ron raised the sword in his shaking hands: The point dangled over the frantically swiveling eyes, and Harry gripped the locket tightly, bracing himself, already imagining blood pouring from the empty windows._

_Then a voice hissed from out the Horcrux._

_"I have seen your heart, and it is mine."_

"And that's not creepy at all." Bill snarled. He hated that that monster had had such an impact on his family.

_"Don't listen to it!" Harry said harshly. "Stab it!"_

_"I have seen your dreams, Ronald Weasley, and I have seen your fears. All you desire is possible, but all that you dread is also possible..."_

_"Stab!" shouted Harry, his voice echoed off the surrounding trees, the sword point trembled, and Ron gazed down into Riddle's eyes._

"Listen to Harry!" Ginny yelled, forgetting that Ron had already done this.

_"Least loved, always, by the mother who craved a daughter . . ."_

"Not true!" Percy snorted. "Mum loves all of us the same."

_Least loved, now, by the girl who prefers your friend . . . Second best, always, eternally overshadowed . . ."_

_"Ron, stab it now!" Harry bellowed: He could feel the locket quivering in the grip and was scared of what was coming. Ron raised the sword still higher, and as he did so, Riddle's eyes gleamed scarlet._

"What's taking so long?" Charlie asked. "Why didn't Ron just stab the thing?"

_Out of the locket's two windows, out of the eyes, there bloomed like two grotesque bubbles, the heads of Harry and Hermione, weirdly distorted.__Ron yelled in shock and backed away as the figures blossomed out of the locket, first chests, then waists, then legs, until they stood in the locket, side by side like trees with a common root, swaying over Ron and the real Harry, who had snatched his fingers away from the locket as it burned, suddenly, white-hot._

"Merlin, Harry!" Ginny said. "Are you alright?"

"Not the time Gin."

_"Ron!" he shouted, but the Riddle-Harry was now speaking with Voldemort's voice and Ron was gazing, mesmerized, into its face._

_"Why return? We were better without you, happier without you, glad of your absence... We laughed at your stupidity, your cowardice, your presumption-"_

"No we didn't." Harry hastily said at the amount of glares sent his way. "We mainly avoided saying his name in fear that we'd track him down and beg him to return."

_"Presumption!" echoed the Riddle-Hermione, who was more beautiful and yet more terrible than the real Hermione:__She swayed, cackling, before Ron, who looked horrified, yet transfixed, the sword hanging pointlessly at his side. "Who could look at you, who would ever look at you, beside Harry Potter? What have you ever done, compared with the Chosen One? What are you, compared with the Boy Who Lived?"_

"Ohh. Low blow." George whistled.

_"Ron, stab it, STAB IT!" Harry yelled, but Ron did not move. His eyes were wide, and the Riddle-Harry and the Riddle-Hermione were reflected in them, their hair swirling like flames, their eyes shining red, their voices lifted in an evil duet._

_"Your mother confessed," sneered Riddle-Harry, while Riddle-Hermione jeered, "that she would have preferred me as a son, would be glad to exchange..."_

"How could Ron think that?" Fred gasped, his eyes widened in shock. He was beginning to regret every prank he'd pulled on his baby brother.

_"Who wouldn't prefer him, what woman would take you, you are nothing, nothing, nothing to him," crooned Riddle-Hermione, and she stretched like a snake and entwined herself around Riddle-Harry, wrapping him in a close embrace: Their lips met._

"Ugh!"

"Riddle was disgusting!"

Many similar cheers could be heard, though Ginny was plotting her revenge on the bushy haired witch.

_On the ground in front of them, Ron's face filled with anguish. he raised the sword high, his arms shaking._

_"Do it, Ron!" Harry yelled._

"Listen to the scrawny git!" Charlie yelled.

"Oi!"

_Ron looked toward him, and Harry thought he saw a trace of scarlet in his eyes._

"That's not good." Ginny muttered, remembering her own experience with a part of Riddle's soul.

_"Ron -?"_

_The sword flashed, plunged: Harry threw himself out of the way, there as a clang of metal and a long, drawn-out scream. Harry whirled around, slipping in the snow, wand held ready to defend himself, but there was nothing to fight.__The monstrous versions of himself and Hermione were gone: There was only Ron, standing there with the sword held slackly in his hand, looking down at the shattered remains of the locket on the flat rock._

The memories ended, leaving the six Weasley kids and the one Potter standing in the living room.

"Harry, could you come and help set the table?" Molly called out. Sneaking a glance, Harry walked out giving the others a perfect time to talk.

"I… I never knew." Bill gasped out. He was supposed to be there for his siblings, helping them deal with their problems. Not cause them.

"Join the club." Percy and Charlie muttered.

"Do you think—"?

"Mum and Dad—"

"Know?" The Twins asked. The others shook their heads. They would have known about Ron's inferiority complex much sooner if their mum had known.

"So what do we do?" Ginny stood up and asked. It were moments like this that really showed her brothers why she had been chosen to be leader of a teenager's gang that stood up to a man that most adults were frightened of.

"We talk to him. Tonight." Bill stood up and went to help his mum with dinner. Dinner was an awkward affair, seeing as most of Ron's siblings couldn't stop staring at him. After the meal, Ron almost raced up to his room.

"Hey, Ron." Ginny poked her head in. "We're gonna play a game of Quiditch. You in?"

"Huh? Oh, no. I'll sit this one out." Ron said. "Thanks though Gin."

Ginny frowned. Her brother must be really upset that they found out about those memories. Otherwise, he'd have jumped at the chance to see Charlie and Harry go head to head. Walking downstairs, she shook her head at Bill.

"Showtime," she muttered into his ear. He nodded and gave the signal to Charlie. One by one, the siblings got each other's attention until they were all in front of Ron's door.

"Why are we doing this again?" Fred asked.

"Because otherwise things will still be awkward, you dolt." Ginny hissed.

"I'm sorry Gin!"

Whatever Ginny was going to say was interrupted by the door opening.

"You know I can hear everything you're saying right?" Ron said with a smirk.

"We need to talk." Bill said, frowning. "Did you clean…"?

The room was spotless, a clear sign that something was bugging Ron. The last time he cleaned his room was when Charlie left to go study dragons.

"My room?" Ron asked. "Maybe. Why?"

"Cause the last time you voluntarily cleaned your room was when you were five." Charlie said.

"Just felt like it." Ron said, lying back down on his bed. A spider crawled over the wall beside him. Ron jumped up and reached for his wand.

"Merlin, why do there have to be spiders?" he muttered. Bill and Charlie looked at each other. They'd no idea their littlest brother was afraid of spiders. Fred and George felt awful. They had no clue that their prank had such long lasting effects.

"Ron err…"

"What?" Ron walked over to the window and faced them. Charlie could see how much his little brother had grown since he last saw him. Ron was even taller than Charlie was now. "What's wrong? Malfoy being turned into the rodent that he is couldn't have upset you?"

"We err, saw some other memories." Ginny said. She watched as Ron began to stiffen.

"Did you?" he asked, in a would be casual voice.

"Ron, we're sorry that we ever made you feel that you weren't important." Bill said. "Why didn't you ever tell us?"

"Hmm? That'd be hard to do Bill with you in Egypt and Charlie in Romania. Oh wait, I could have gone to Percy. But he was off doing Merlin knows what. Fred and George would have laughed and Ginny wouldn't have understood." Ron spun around, the feelings he'd been hiding for years coming to light.

"Did…did you really think Mum didn't want you?" Percy asked in a small voice.

"Well seeing as she had no trouble remembering everyone else's favorite color, or sandwich. Maroon every year, even though I told her I prefer blue. Corned beef, even though only Bill likes those."

Ron had some good points. Charlie had to admit he failed at being a big brother when he went so far away to study dragons. He should have played the sport he loved.

"Hey, we're sorry." Bill said.

"About what?" Ron asked, surprised. He was the one that should be apologizing not them.

"For making you feel so—"

"Invisible you prat."

Ron laughed.

"I haven't felt that in years. I guess you guys finally knowing how I used to feel made me a little uncomfortable."

"Quidtich?" Charlie pleaded.

"Sure." Ron laughed. "I can't wait to see Harry kick your fat arse."

As they left, Bill waited.

"We cool, little brother?" he asked, wanting to be sure.

"Yeah. We're cool." Ron said, giving Bill a small hug.

"Hey, are we going to play or not!" Harry and Charlie's voices could be heard from downstairs. The two boys laughed and headed downstairs. Ron, for once, felt visible to his brothers. Now, how to prank Harry for showing them those memories?

Fin

A/N: Review. Plot Bunny bit me and I had to type this up. Tell me what you think.


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